Southeast Notebook: State Tournament Central

It was a crazy week across the South as playoffs are in high-gear in some states and the regular season is winding down in others. We saw some craziness in both South Carolina and Florida over the past week as Florida finished the first round of the playoffs and state champions crowned in South Carolina.

Player Highlight

The player highlighted this week comes from Louisiana, which not many talk about, but is certainly doing an incredible job of growing the game and pushing the sport forward.

Coming into the first round of the LHSLL playoffs St. Paul’s (La.) senior attackman Ian Varney had 90 points, needing three to break the single-season school scoring record. Varney ended up with eight points (7g,1a) in St. Paul’s dominating 27-2 win over Ocean Springs (Miss.) to move onto the second round.

Varney is now the record holder for points in a single-season at St. Paul’s with 98 at the moment, and that number is bound to grow bigger.

Team of The Week

Outside of the top two teams in the state, Louisville Collegiate (Ky.) had one of the best seasons of any team in Kentucky. In a Louisville versus Lexington battle last week, Louisville Collegiate (Ky.) defeated Lexington Catholic (Ky.).

Louisville Collegiate (Ky.) is 8-2 overall with one game left in the season. A pair of senior Kenyon College commits lead the Titans in defenseman Zion Snardon and attackman Jack Giuffre.

Storyline of The Week

The biggest storyline in South from past weeks comes from Tennessee where the top two teams in the state went head-to-head.

McCallie School (Tenn.) gave Montgomery Bell (Tenn.) their first in-state loss of the season as the Blue Tornado defeated the Big Red 12-8. Junior attackman and Yale commit Carter Henry scored four goals in the win for McCallie.

Eye-Opening Performance

Cardinal Gibbons (N.C.) faceoff man Drew Perun had one of his best performances of the season. The junior went 19-for-22 at the faceoff dot as Cardinal Gibbons defeated Enloe (N.C.) 18-3.

State Tournament Central

Multiple states in the South have already started their playoffs while a few states get their playoffs underway over the next two weeks.

Coming into the first round of the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) playoffs the biggest matchup looked to be Oxbridge Academy (Fla.) versus St. Andrew’s (Fla.).

It did not turn out to be the game many thought as St. Andrew’s defeated Oxbridge 12-5 to move onto the Regional Semifinals where they play another solid team in St. Thomas Aquinas (Fla.)

With three goals in the win over Oxbridge, senior attackman and Catholic University commit Max Schwarz led the way for St. Andrew’s. Freshman goalie Gunnar Schwarz made 12 saves off of 17 shots on goal to aid in the win as well.

In South Carolina, a new dynasty may be on the rise as one has come to an end.

Oceanside Collegiate Academy (S.C.) won their second 4A state title in their second year as a varsity program. The Landsharks took down the Battling Bishops of Bishop England (S.C.) in a dominating 16-5 win. Oceanside Collegiate Academy ends their second season with another state championship and an overall record of 11-6 that features zero losses in South Carolina.

Sophomore attackman Adam Lipsky and senior midfielder Chase Milan led the way for Oceanside Collegiate Academy with four goals each in the win.

While a dynasty may have begun in 4A, a streak came to a halt in 5A.

Fort Mill (S.C.) defeated Wando (S.C.) in the 5A State Championship game 13-8. Fort Mill’s win stopped Wando from winning their fifth straight SCHSL 5A State Championship. This was the fourth-consecutive meeting of these programs in the state championship game.

Junior attackman Zach Terry led the way in the win for Fort Mill as he scored six of their 13 goals in the win.

Down to the Bayou, the status quo remained through the first round of the LHSLL playoffs. The only real notable results have been Brother Martin (La.) defeating Newman (La.) 10-6 and Catholic (La.) defeating rival Dutchtown (La.) 19-6.

In Georgia, the GHSA playoffs start this week, and the one game to have your eye on is in the 6A/7A playoffs where Pope (Ga.) and Centennial (Ga.) face each other in the first round.

Lambert (Ga.) looks to keep on winning as they play Parkview (Ga.) in the first round.

Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina all start their playoffs over the next few weeks as the calendar turns to May.